It's Official: Xenoblade Chronicles is Coming to North America

Oh my I dont even...

Proof that Operation Rainfall can and did work, now let's all support the game so we can get them to bring us the other two as well!!!

Yes! And here I thought it would take a visit from three spirits or something.

Incredible game. Very happy to see this happening.

Is too late nintendo...sorry.

Awesome! Although I imported. Patience is not a virtue of mine.

lol, this is no proof that anything worked — you may as well say a charm that wards away tigers or elephants from your home 'works' too. the only thing this proves is that (a) Nintendo isn't stupid (as in they had plans to release it all along that were never leaked), and (b) patience is eventually rewarded.

Congratulations! It's a great game, you'll love it!

Xenoblade Chronicles will be available exclusively through U.S. GameStop retail locations...

How did GameStop get exclusive distribution? They must have pushed really hard for NOA to release this game.

What about other NA countries like Canada and Mexico? It just says U.S. GameStops. Odd.

@theblackdragon I have a rock that keeps away grizzly bears :3

It proves someone wanted more money =)

And YAY!!!! Take mine =)

Is it a case of "better late than never" or "too little too late"?

Guess that depends on whether you trusted that NoA would make the effort to release one of the best games on Wii after months of saying there were no plans to do so, or if you took the matter into your own hands and imported.

Great to hear that people who weren't hardcore enough to import will still get the chance to play this gem. Doesn't have any effect on my level of trust that NoA will release games I want in the future.

@Ryno: it says the only retail stores it'll be in will be US GameStops, but note that it also says Gamestop.com and Nintendo.com will have it as well. hooray, internet? :3

OH BOY!!!!

Me and all my friends helped in Operation Rainfall.
I knew it was only a matter of time. B3

YESSS!!!!!!

Congratulations! Its good to see that all you Americans will get to play this amazing game.

@TBD: What is this Internet that you speak of?

Anyway...

Xenoblade Chronicles will be available exclusively through U.S. GameStop retail locations, http://www.gamestop.com and http://www.nintendo.com at a suggested retail price of $49.99 in the United States.

I suppose Canadians and Mexicans can order it from the U.S. sites. I just found it interesting that this release singled out the U.S. vs. announcing it for all across North America.

I don't want to be the rotten egg, but I doubt Operation Rainfall really did much. Nintendo probably started the work to start translating the game to American English once it came out in Japan, and NOE simply worked much faster than NOA. Of course, it is entirely possible Nintendo did listen to Operation Rainfall fans and are simply working MUCH faster than NOE at translating.

Anyways, it's coming, some of your prayers have been answered, we're all happy(ier).

Hulk Hogan was right; taken Flinstone vitamins and praying for a Xenoblade NA release every night really does work!!

@AbuJaffer: Don't worry, i already went there :3

OH LAWDY YESS!!

I already placed a pre-order on gamestop.com! Operation Rainfall worked! Victorious we are!

O MY A GOD! FINALLY!! Reserving this on Sunday.

@theblackdragon: I pretty much agree with you. XD Still, I can PRETEND my opinion mattered to Nintendo~ :3

@Ryno Either that or the exclusivity deal only covers the U.S. and it'll be available everywhere in Canada and Mexico.

Hell yeah! TAKE MY MONEY! Hopefully the other Operation Rainfalls come to USA.

Holy wow. American voice actors?

This was my reaction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs
Best news all day.

YES, YES, YES! Thank you to the Holy Crusaders who carried out operation rainfall! We North Americans owe you all a great debt of gratitude (Let me have my moment. I know NoA doesn't listen ti crap like that)! I'm psyched that this is coming state-side, though i do wish it were earlier and not so close to the Wii U release. But what the hell, I'll take it!

YES!!! Now you all need to buy your copies like you said you would

Something tells me that this was already going to happen in spite of Operation Rainfall's efforts. Not to take their efforts lightly, what they did made this game popular amongst the interweb's many gaming communities, but I just feel NOA had this planned all along.

Absolutely tubular.

YES! The Wii is not yet dead!

Going out now to pre-order. This made my day spectacular.

Never did I think this would happen.

YES, I'm so glad I didn't import it!

SQUEEEEEE!!!!!
_{Ahem. Sorry, just lost my cool...}

OH MY GOD YES

Very happy for you, dear Americans!!

W.e I rather they just release Xenoblade.

HOW HARD IS THAT TO DO NINTENDO!?!

Ooohh yeah! Now I really hope I can get my hands on an imported copy here in Brazil... =S

Im soooooo happy for you guys, in my opinion xenoblade > zelda SS... had over 80 hours of massive fun with it, best Wii Game and best RPG ever, no doubt..........

Thanks Reggie! Now let's talk about those Fatal Frame games...

Yeah... I didn't actually want this game, Nintendo. I just like griping along with everyone else. Good luck selling this dud.

I'm really excited right now!

Im pretty sure they had this planned all along. There is a lot of time between now and when Wii U is released, they want to keep some interest in the Wii until then so they have to pace themselves. Now that Zelda is released they could announce this to keep some interest in the system.

dont care so much about this one, i care more about last story. I'll get it if i have the money though

Nintendo redeems itself a bit today. So happy this is coming. Day 1 purchase.

@Kedamen

Poor pacing would be releasing the games at the same time. What would have been the harm in letting people know about the Spring release all along? Why wait until everybody hates them and assumes they know nothing of good business?

Didn't I read somewhere that if it did well in EU, they would release it here?
I guess popularity payed off.
Besides, with lack of games, they had to do something.

I am happy

AwRIGHT! Now i'm happy! Yay!
I would like to thank everyone who supported operation rainfall. Guys, your work were awesome, time for the reward!

I honestly never thought this day would come. Shows that if you believe in Nintendo, they will listen.

NOOOOO!!! WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS?

Glad to see at least one of the Rainfall games coming.

Better late than never but I'd rather have The Last Story. Good for those who want Xenoblade, absolutely no reason for it not to have been released here this year though, but this is NoA we're talking about so it doesn't shock me it took them a million years to wake up. I give them no credit for doing something that should've already been done.

"Proof that Operation Rainfall can and did work, now let's all support the game so we can get them to bring us the other two as well!!!"

I don't want to burst your bubble, but I doubt Project Rainfall has anything to do with it! Nintendo always had the plans to bring it to the States! I just expected it earlier (before the end of 2011).

But anyway: Good news, Americans!

My heart skipped a beat....

rainfall did nothing... it was always coming out in 2012... if rainfall had worked we'd have been playing the game by now

I'm not buying many new games at this point in my life, but I'll buy this because I really don't want Nintendo to get into the old habit of not releasing RPGs in the North American market. (...And also because I really want to play it.)

LOL @5 you're sort of an idiot...

YES. YES YES YES.

YES nothing like finishing school to see an article like this.

First off: AWESOME

Second: ... one of three)
1) Operation Rainfall was a success and Nintendo of America's fear of releasing JRPGs in the West (a completely founded fear, as most have been doing dismally in the past few years) was silenced by the continued efforts.
2) Operation Rainfall had no effect, and NoA was always planning to release these JRPGs to the West. This is not so much the fact that they were titles that people were looking forward to: but more of an effort on Nintendo's part - as they had hand-picked these developers to create these JRPGs for the Wii - and they wouldn't have it exclusive to Japan.
3) Operation Rainfall was an effective publicity stunt by NoA. In order to gain enough buyers and interested buyers, NoA had either hired a person or planned to tease people enough to create a viral marketing campaign... which would boost sales and interest once announced.

I'm more for option 1. Mostly because Japanese companies have been very wary of releasing JRPGs in the West as of late... they don't do very well. That, and why would they wait so long to release it if they were just going to keep practically everything intact from the European release? And one last factor: Why only GameStop and Nintendo.com? None of these factors feels like a "we've been planning to do this all along".

Lastly: For all those "too late Nintendo" people (not just any found here):
:/ srsly?
Because a publisher didn't release a game quickly made by one of the RPG developer LEGENDS (Xenogears) - you're going to ignore it? Really? Wow.
I buy games to support the developer, not the publisher.
Publishers keep the developers paid and fed, so ignoring to give them money is like refusing to pay someone's manager... ...it's not like you can just donate your money directly to the worker.

I think we can all agree that the real triumph here is that NoA is going with "Xenoblade" in the title like everybody else, rather than the decidedly less-boss sounding "Monado".

"Reads title"
"expects april fools joke after clicking link"
"Jaw drops through the floor"

Finally! I can't wait for this!!!!

Have to make something clear:
Did not mean "game quickly made" - I meant "release a game quickly - made by"

Spring release date? Let me guess, April 1, 2012?

Great news and I think actually smart on Nintendo's part. We all knew Skyward Sword would be awesome and with the Wii winding down, it makes sense to space out it's great games so people can actually play and complete a game before the next great game is released. Flood the market too soon and overall sales suffer. Smart move Nintendo and add some updates and/or bonuses while you are at it

As good as it's sold in 2/3 of the northern hemisphere, how could it NOT come here? I don't really care how it did, what chain was pulled, who did what... all I know is it's about damn time, and I'm glad it's finally here.

Oh and: https://twitter.com/#!/sorayasaga/status/142735933421268994
(from the wife of the creator... who also worked on Xenogears & Xenosaga with him)

Good. I'd say it's a mix of pressures both from the business model, and from pissed off gamers and media types that did it. On the business end you got WiiU in Sept/2012 and only Rhythm Heaven out before that on Wii, nothing else from NOA, huge gap. Then you have the horrendously bad press they got that went beyond gamer sites(like this) to the mainstream media that made them look bad. Combine that with their talks of wanting 'core' gamers back on WiiU but ignoring them on this game was setting them up for a fall with their old existing core demographic.

I'm glad they wised up and did the right thing, shame that you have to buy it from disgusting Gamestop unless you have a creditcard and pick it up online from NOA direct(I will.)

@MeloMan
"As good as it's sold in 2/3 of the northern hemisphere, how could it NOT come here?"

Don't let JRPG fans catch you saying that.
Lots of games were released in Japan and Europe, and never hit Stateside.

"Sings Hallelujah Chorus"

YES! Now only for Pandora's Tower.

There you go people. Now, ACTUALLY buy it when it comes out.

Sweet. I'll pick this up along side the Wii U.

OMG i am so happy right now! this news has just made my day! time for PRE-ORDERING this!

YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!!YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA-wait, what about Last Story and Pandora's Tower? The wait continues...

I guess im in the very small minority who doesn't really care. The Last Story looking mildly interesting, but this looks kinda "meh."

This is a bit off-topic since it isn't one of the Rainfall Three, but has anyone heard anything about Earth Seeker since Xseed mentioned they were interested in it back in July. Not that I don't want to see all of these games become available to the people who want to play them, but I'm personally more interested in playing that than I am Pandora's Tower.

If Nintendo's plan is to space these games out between now and next Christmas, they had better hurry up. If for instance the Last Story comes out too close to the Wii U launch date, no one will care anymore.

I am glad to hear it will make it, although not that happy with that exclusivity deal. I buy solely on Amazon and haven't heard very good things about Gamestop.

I knew it was coming early next year. Because Nintendo really had "nothing" much for 2012, so saving this for Spring was a good idea (with them focusing on 3ds, releasing Kirby, Zelda and Fortune Street for Wii.. And Sega's Mario and Sonic.. It's kinda crowded with those other games on the other platforms too).

Pandora's Tower and The Last Story, I'm expecting to come after, with possibly an announcement on them soon

I personally couldn't care less about the game but I'm glad that its coming out here for those that do. I'm just not looking forward to Operation Rainfall claiming credit for it.

Umm... A little too late for me as I already own the PAL version. Good game, not a great one like Skyward Sword though.

So ... um ... why not just announce it straight away and not cause all this heartache? D:

Not that I care, really, I'm just happy I get to try this one. :3

maybe ill get it idk..... looks and sounds good though. still, i want to save my money to buy more 3DS games

....what about Last Story and Pandora's Tower? I was really gunning to have Last Story.

1. Good for NA but Spring 2012 its bad -.- we have since August, 20th

2.Operation Rainfall worked so now Operation Moonfall have to work xD

ONLY GAMESTOP EXCLUSIVE!!!

noooooooooooooooooooooo in México we don´t have that stores!!!

I wonder if they feel only "core" gamers would get this game, and parents wouldn't pick them up for their kids at a Target or Best Buy. This could be the compromise that saves Ninty on distribution costs, which I'm ok with. It's annoying that I don't shop at gamestop, but hopefully Amazon will get it too somehow (or I will wait for a pricedrop).

Can't wait for it just need to get a wii

Congrats, but what crap waiting for another four months.

This is nothing to do with Operation Rainfall.

Nintendo clearly didn't want anything to compete with Skyward Sword....

Anyway, all you complainers, time to put your money where your mouth is. If you don't buy this, you can't complain when Nintendo refuse to localize any more RPGs.... Worringly, I already see excuses on other gaming sites.

@md1500 speaks words of wisdom.

When EU gamers were told that they weren't going to get London Life in their release of the latest Professor Layton game, a lot of NA people gloated and said "that's for Xenoblade!" and nonsense like that, DESPITE the fact that Layton games sell a darn sight better over here.

Does that mean now we're going to get a release of London Life? Not that it was particularly much cop, but goodness knows Europeans can't get enough of the professor.

Good news! Now u can all stop crying like little babies, & not purchase the game when it finally drops!

Oh yeah! YES YES (M. Bison)

I'll be getting it, for sure.

Yes there's still hope for the Wii in 2012 after all, now if only Earth Seeker, The Last Story, Takt of Magic, and Pandora's Tower made it in 2012 as well. Glad that there's other good Nintendo titles coming in 2012 other than the two would be casual titles Mario Party 9 and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, hopefully that one new Pokemon Wii game is ready to be reveal and release in 2012 too.

@ 102,

You are right. If people don;t by this game why should Nintendo bother to localize Last Story and Pandora's Tower. People have to put their money where their mouth is. Too many good game developers went under because too many people said they wanted a certain kind of game and when it came out, people did not buy it The ball is in our court with this game as well as what other RPGs that could come out state side.

Guess it must have sold well in Europe, then.

In answer to the question "why not just announce it right away?" — what, and miss out on all the free awareness work from OpRainfall?

What patience? We hijacked every facebook status Nintendo made for months.

Clever. Good publicity, they now look like they served their fans and they have a good game to release during a very boring year for Wii. I had thought they should release it during the summer because they had next to no games until the Holiday season but they were thinking almost along the same lines, I suppose.

Squeeeeeeel! Sorry, I couldn't help but let loose a girly scream of excitement!

@James, twus what I said! You EU folk better buy Last Story too

I'm also kinda ...disgruntled by the fact that it's a Gamestop exclusive.
cringe

@Token_Girl (#99): That's exactly what I was thinking. The GameStop exclusivity is a really smart idea, in my opinion, since this game would languish on store shelves at Wal-mart or Target. It'd then be priced lower to sell, would look bad, etc. People who buy at GameStop are more likely to be the ones wanting/knowing about this game in the first place. Less distribution costs, better relationship with major retailer, everyone's happy.
Unless, that is, Xenoblade comes out and absolutely nobody buys it. Don't think that'll happen. I've played one RPG to completion ever (Chrono Trigger on DS) and even I'm somewhat hyped to try this out. Let's hope it starts a new momentum of awesome RPGs on Nintendo platforms moving forward...

BEST DAY EVER !

@James: Of course, it's not obvious? D:

Now everybody will buy Xenoblade, even people that didn't know nothing about the game until OpRainfall... like me

Really pleased for you guys, it's a great game and I hope you all enjoy it when it finally hits the shelves over there.

@theblackdragon while that argument works(in your first post) if there hadn't been a change in their opinion of sales results. They thought there wasn't enough interest in America and were going to watch Europe, which resulted in this.

YEA!!!! FINALLY!!!!

That's great, but I'm still waiting for the fatal frame games. I figure they're trying to get publishing rights to one and three to have a full hd collection on wii u, I hope I'm right.

@TBD
Normally I'd agree with you since we "gamers" like to pat ourselves on the back for things like this. However, there are things about this particular release that are very perculiar. For one it's only at gamestop and online, so Nintendo doesn't likely have much faith in the project.

Also I believe the game will be the same as it was in Europe including voice acting and the way they spell certain words. The lack of TRUE localization tells me that the fans had some sort of "push" for NOA publishing. Of course I could be wrong.

@King_Boo

I doubt they'll localize a game with as many glitches as Fatal Frame IV.

not my type of game at all, but I'm glad to see that the pleas of so many people who wanted to play it didn't fall on deaf ears at Nintendo.

yes! this definitely absolutely wonder news. cant wait. i say it comes out january or feb

Soooooo, do you guys actually think this has anything to do with Rainfall? This is buisness....glad it comes to States (It's an awesome game!) but I think it's buisness....and just that.

Nintendo showing some love =].

Whee!

@Monsti Doubt it. If anything, Rainfall may have delayed the release as Nintendo would want to show that they don't give into threats - otherwise people would be doing campaigns like that for every game release.

Congratulations!!! This is one of the best Wii games & RPGs ever!!!

Awesome! So apparently the email that I sent to Nintendo that only took about 15 minutes to write on behalf of Operation Rainfall helped make this 40+ hour game come into my life. Pretty good payoff, no?

I'd just like to be the guy to say, "No, our patience has not been 'rewarded.'" We're getting the game, yes. But is that really a reward for waiting months after everyone else gets it? No word on special editions, extra content, preorder bonuses... and only one of the three marquee games we're missing, wanting and requesting. Even then, that one major game we're getting won't even be widely available. I won't be able to find it at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target or anywhere else from which I am known to buy games. I hardly consider that "reward." And it hardly has a thing to do with "patience," I might add. It has to do with Nintendo deciding to release it in the Western Hemisphere when they felt like it. Unfortunately, try as we might, Americans played no part in "earning" the ability to play the game.

Maybe I'm just cynical. Maybe I'm just spoiled. I'm super excited to finally play the game, of course. But I also want The Last Story. I want Pandora's Tower. I want people to recognize that it's rather asinine for Nintendo to hold off on a major demographic, give them nothing more than the barebones product and expect widespread praise flung at Nintendo figureheads for their mercy and magnanimity.

It's not a reward when you get what everyone else has. It's just catching up. It feels good, yeah, but it's nothing special.

/rant. That said, I'm off to go preorder it and will keep eagerly awaiting the day I get my hands on that blue and green box.

Well, my faith in Nintendo has been restored, somewhat. At least I don't have to feel like a hypocrite for buying Fortune Street.

i am glad this is coming to the USA....i hate it when good games only come out in one reign and not the other.it always makes me made. but good it see it now.

Happy to see that you guys get it too. I haven't even picked up mine yet as I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it.

Don't buy this game. This game is way too short to pack its own greatness and variety. You will be left hungry and spoiled forever after finishing it.

Traxx,this is !!!i have the game and played 120 hours,so tou say short???

Finally someone is listening ! Ha

I'm not too fond of Gamestop. Hope I can purchase it online.

yay now i can dust my wii off!!! in April!

@md1500 It's not a hostage situation! I'm sure Nintendo have no problem with their fans letting them know which games they'd like to play. After all, they don't HAVE to release certain games just because their customers say so, although campaigns like Rainfall may certainly help to persuade them that it's worthwhile.

This was great news, then I read more, notably the word "April", and it was good news. Then I read the phrase "GameStop exclusive" and I realized, this is bad news. OpRa used Amazon pre-orders in their campaign... these are meaningless now. They've not only gone with GameStop, but have pre-order links on their site. Given how well Xenoblade did in EU, I think they're plotting to duplicate that with a production run just a little bit more than the pre-orders. It's still a good-ish thing, but it's not looking like minds were changed. Those who want the game can pre-order it from Nintendo or GameStop, and everyone else likely will never even hear about this game.

@132 bro2dragons: I wouldn't call you cynical, I'd call you whiney. As far as "patience" goes, I've been waiting even longer for Fatal Frame 4 to come over here, so just be thankful that this one is coming at all.

Looks like it's a Gamestop exclusive, huh? It might get pretty rare. I hope it comes with that red Classic Controller. :3

Just saw the UK IGN video review - looks like a great game! Plenty of other games to keep me busy, so I'm in no rush to play this. Probably a wise move marketing wise on Nintendo's part to announce the release now, after SS has been released...